The first illustrator sold in the year 2000 for 22k. That was way more valuable than any other card, and before any of the influences you mentioned. For reference, a PSA 10 1st Ed Zard was around 1k in 2007-09.
I do agree there is more smoke around recent extra copies, but that isn’t limited to the illustrator. Majority of the snap cards in circulation are extras. I don’t think that takes away from the fact that the Illustrator has always been the most valuable card; the total amount of graded illustrators is less than the total amount of PSA 10 zards.